A senior officer of Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) on Monday identified as the “ring leader” of the bloody rebellion which left at least 73 army officers dead as army launched a massive manhunt to track down about 1,000 fugitive soldiers against whom murder charges were slapped.

Touhidul Alam,Deputy Assistant Director of the BDR,who led a rebel delegation in talks with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina,was named as the “main” leader of rebel soldiers.

Efforts to track down Alam have not yet yielded results.

“The massacre took place under his (Alam’s) leadership … the rebels had accepted him as their leader,” said Nabo Jyoti Khisha,the chief of Lalbagh police station where a case has been filed.

Police claimed that they have gathered “enough evidence” against Alam and other conspirators of the two-day mutiny. Among the 73 officers who were killed was BDR chief Maj Gen Shakil Ahmed. Mutilated bodies of his wife,Nazneen,and three other civilians were recovered from the mass graves and drains inside the BDR complex.

Seventy-two army officers are still missing.

As police and intelligence investigations got underway in Bangladesh’s most high profile case,troops launched a massive manhunt to 1,000 fugitive soldiers blamed for the mutiny.